Ten tales of Manifest Destiny

Robert Morgan is keenly aware that there are many ways to interpret the westward expansion of the United States of America. He concedes that much of it was tragic, yet, he recognizes the poetry of the westward vision of Thomas Jefferson and others who advocated for exploration and settlement of the West. In telling this complex story, Morgan follows Ralph Waldo Emerson’s words:...

Daniel Boone, unplugged

For many of us of a certain age, the enduring image of Daniel Boone is coonskin-capped actor Fess Parker on the eponymous television series from the 1960s. Robert Morgan shatters that iconic image right from the get-go in Boone, his impressive new biography of the American legend. Forget the coonskin cap, he writes in the very first sentence, he never wore one. That's just the first of many...